Field of Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods for controlling the operation of balers.
Description of Related Art
Large square balers are used in the agricultural industry to create large substantially rectangular bales of crop material by moving over crop windrows to collect loose crop material, compress the material, and form it into bales that are then tied and ejected. To that end, a baler is typically mechanically coupled with a tractor, and a power take-off (PTO) mechanism transfers power from the tractor's engine to drive the baler's operation. A rotary pick-up at the front of the baler picks up the loose crop material and moves it into a stuffer chamber. Once the stuffer chamber is full, its contents are moved through a stuffer chute into a forming chamber. A reciprocating plunger compresses the crop material in the forming chamber into a growing bale. Once the bale reaches a predetermined length, which could be eight feet, it is tied and ejected through a discharge outlet to fall onto the ground behind the baler. The process then continues to create the next bale.
Starting a large baler requires substantial PTO torque to overcome the resting inertia of its flywheel and other components. The required torque is substantially increased during restarting if the plunger is initially positioned against a bale in the forming chamber, and the additional load of the bale as the reciprocating plunger attempts to push past its “rear-dead-center” position can result in stalling the tractor engine or disengaging the PTO.
This background discussion is intended to provide information related to the present invention which is not necessarily prior art.